Skeletal remains recovered on Oxnard beach in 1984 identified as Donald Scott Reich

OXNARD, Calif. (KEYT) – Skeletal remains discovered on Silver Strand Beach in May of 1984 have been identified as 33-year-old Donald Scott Reich, a professional organist who worked at the Wagon Wheel Junction entertainment complex.

On May 10, 1984, the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office collected a human jawbone with teeth from Silver Strand Beach for identification stated a press release from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office Thursday.

The Medical Examiner was unable to verify the remains and in 2006, a DNA profile was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System(CODIS) which yielded no matches and the unidentified remains were documented as John Doe (1984) shared the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Recently, the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office provided forensic evidence of the remains for submission to Othram Labs in The Woodlands, Texas, for advanced DNA testing and scientists there were able to successfully develop a DNA extract and then used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a DNA profile for the man explained the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

With the new information, investigators were able to link the the remains to a man who died at sea in 1978 and DNA samples were collected from a relative confirming that the Silver Strand Beach remains were of Donald Scott Reich.

In 1978, the 33-year-old had recently gotten married and moved to Ventura County where he worked as a professional organist at the Wagon Wheel Junction, an entertainment complex that included a roller rink and restaurant detailed the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Reich owned a 23-foot boat in need of repair and he was working with 20-year-old Mike Gay, a local mechanic, on a Sunday evening after work when both men took the boat out to open sea from the harbor around 10 p.m. to test the engine noted the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, the boat either ran out of gas or had engine problems and both men were reported as missing the same night.

Despite a search in the sea and air through the night, the boat was located the next day strewn across Mandalay Beach with some pieces of the boat found more than a mile along the coastline noted the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators believe that the boat drifted and was caught in the surf after loosing power and was ripped aport by the sea and shore shared the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Gay's body was recovered by a helicopter floating four miles offshore and most of Reich's body was found about a month later stated the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Reich's jawbone was found six years later on Silver Strand Beach and has now been connected to the entertainer's death at sea in 1978.